


Your Mother and Mine

by ViciousRhythm



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Gen, Mother's Day, lowkey happiness bc Leia deserves it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 08:51:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6797341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViciousRhythm/pseuds/ViciousRhythm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Mom!” Ben’s shout carries across the room, followed by the sound of running feet, and Leia turns in time to catch him in her arms.</p>
<p>-<br/>modern au mother's day ficlet featuring eight year old Ben Solo and a family that might have some bumps, but certainly isn't broken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Mother and Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is in the same verse as Stay Kind, Little One (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6723607) but you definitely don't need to read that to make this make sense.

Leia manages to pick Ben up on time on Friday, if only because she’s determined to prove something to herself. Incidentally, it’s the first time she’s met Rey, though Leia has heard enough about the little girl already that it’s no trouble recognizing her immediately. The girl is coloring with Ben at a back table when Leia walks in, babbling her tiny head off with a bright smile on her face while Ben listens patiently. Even for a first grader, she’s a bit small, not quite gangly like Ben, but all skinny limbs nonetheless.

Leia dawdles with Maria for a few minutes to give them some time where Rey is giving an animated speech complete with wild hand motions. Ben catches sight of her soon enough anyway, and Leia can see him do a double take out of the corner of her eye.

“Mom!” Ben’s shout carries across the room, followed by the sound of running feet, and Leia turns in time to catch him in her arms.

“Hey, bug,” Leia coos, face stretched wide on a smile knowing her son is so happy to see her. She can’t be doing too badly if he still runs to her before remembering himself. Which he does, after a moment, shrugging off his mom’s hug and glancing over his shoulder at where Rey is watching them curiously.

“You’re early,” Ben says, almost accusing.

“I am.” Leia would like to pretend it’s just for the sake of it, but she knows Ben and Han will both be doing their best to give her a relaxing Mother’s Day this weekend. Picking up her son from daycare before sunset is the least she can do. “Go get your things, honey.”

He doesn’t listen immediately, but Ben’s diversion is going back over to Rey, and Leia has all the time in the world this afternoon so she doesn't mind. The girl seems hesitant, her curious gaze shifting into shyness, but Ben manages to coax her over and present her to Leia like some miraculous treasure, a proud smile on his face. Rey shuffles her feet, staring at her toes while Ben introduces her.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Rey,” Leia says, kneeling down to her level. “Ben’s told me so much about you.”

Ben doesn’t even have the shame to look embarrassed about it, and Leia’s chest swells with affection.

“I don’t have a mom and dad,” Rey says abruptly, shocking Leia with the non sequitur and the blunt information which seems to be borne of Rey shyness somehow. “Ben said you have to ask my mom and dad if we can play,” she goes on, “but I don’t have one.”

“Oh,” Leia says, a little lost. “Well. That’s, um.”

“My grandpa said I can go over to friends’ houses if he meets their parents though.”

Leia breathes a silent sigh of relief. “We’d be happy to have you over any time, Rey,” she says, part reflex and part genuine invite. She seems to be a sweet little girl, though Leia would expect no less with Ben as enamored as he is. It must be hard for her, whatever happened to her parents, and Rey is still a charming girl nonetheless.

“Thank you, Mrs. Solo,” she says, her awkwardness starting to fade.

“See?” Ben cuts in. “I told you she’d say it’s okay. Can Rey come over next weekend?” he asks Leia, all eager hopefulness.

“So long as that’s alright with Rey’s grandpa, it’s fine by me.” Both kids turn excited grins on each other, and Leia is almost sorry to take him away. She does herd Ben toward his backpack and get him out the door eventually, though. There’s the usual round of disagreement over whether Ben has homework and when it ought to be done, but Leia has the advantage of it being a couple hours until Han gets home and they’ll all need to be fed. So she plants Ben at the kitchen table and helps him with his math homework and forces him to talk about his day with her.

Friday evening and Saturday pass in the usual relaxed fashion, and Leia pointedly doesn’t remind Han what time the stores close. They do this every year – Han insists he has it handled, but he’ll wake up in the morning to realize they’re out of eggs and rush off to the twenty-four hour grocery store and buy a bouquet of tulips on the way. When Leia wakes up to Han rolling out of bed as gently as possible, she turns on her side and forces herself back to sleep, wakefulness be damned.

She wakes properly an hour later when Ben crawls into bed with her, dignity set aside for the morning and indulging his mother’s simple joy in getting to snuggle in with her son. Ben isn’t quite old enough to help out with breakfast yet, so Han sends him in as the pre-breakfast wake up call, and Leia spends a few minutes petting his hair and listening to Ben tell her he loves her and happy mother’s day. It’s honestly more important than any of the presents she’ll get today, having her family with her.

Han carts in a plate of lopsided pancakes and eggs and strawberries, a mimosa in hand, and they all shuffle to fit into the bed together. Chewie follows after him, and though Han puts up a token protest, they all know the massive dog will end up curled up on the bed with them. Leia has accepted that the dog goes where Han goes, and she doesn’t mind him lying across their feet.

“Oh wait!” Ben says suddenly, sitting up properly between his parents. “Presents!” He climbs over Han, nearly elbowing him in the face, and takes off jogging down the hall.

“He picked the books,” Han says when Ben’s pounding footsteps are fading. “I have the receipt if you’ve already read them.”

“Good call,” Leia laughs, and then Ben is barreling down the hall again. He launches himself onto the bed, one handed with his other arm full of wrapped presents. Judging by the wrapping job, Ben helped with that too.

“Cards first,” Ben demands, shoving a pair of cards into Leia’s hands. The first has MOM scrawled on it in Ben’s best cursive. It’s one of the hand-made cards all the kids make at school, with a rainbow drawn inside over a stick figure family portrait.

“Thank you, Ben.” Leia leans forward to kiss his cheek, making Ben make a face through his pleased smile. “This is lovely, honey.” He urges her on to open his present, and it is a book that she’s read before, by her favorite author, but she just thanks him for it anyway. She’ll return it for another book later after Ben’s forgotten which one he picked out for her.

Han’s card is a lot more lengthy, inspiring maybe a few tears in Leia’s eyes. Ben makes a gagging noise while they’re kissing, eventually toppling over across Leia and Han’s laps to make them stop. He drags Han’s gift over while Leia is still rolling her eyes at his dramatics, insistently shaking it at her. He of course got the things she’d listed, gifts that are functional, but it’s the thought that counts, and Leia has never been one for many unnecessary baubles anyway. The real gift is that she won’t have to clean up whatever mess Han left in the kitchen. She’s not touching dishwater today for any reason.

Leia sends out the obligatory texts to Shara and the other moms she knows, and leaves Ben and Han alone with instructions to clean up the living room. She has her own a private ritual today to visit her mothers’ graves – Padme and Breha, buried in separate cemeteries beside their respective husbands. She goes to Padme first, because it’s always harder to leave Breha and Bail’s gravesite. She never knew Padme, for obvious reasons, but Bail had been her close friend before Leia and Luke were born, and it’s on days like these that Leia wishes she could have known her birth mother. Still, it’s talking to Breha’s grave that always brings her to tears.

Her parents shouldn’t have died so young, and Leia has mostly made her peace with it, but the birth and death dates seem so close together, carved into stone like that. Even when Leia had learned she was adopted, Bail and Breha had been her real parents, and she has Breha to thank for what she knows about being a mother herself. Leia can only hope she balances work and family as well as her mother did, and that her son feels as loved and accepted as Leia always had, despite her birth parents.

“Thank you,” she chokes out, stroking careful fingers over the flowers she’s placed. Leia stands in silence for a few moments, never sure what to say, always knowing it won’t be enough. “I hope you knew how much I loved you.”

She buries the irrational urge to kiss the stone, and presses her palm to the top of it instead, turning back toward the cemetery entrance. Her eye catches on one of the more intricate headstones and Leia’s mind wanders to Rey, wonders if her parents are buried somewhere in this cemetery or another, farther away. Now’s not the time for such thoughts, she decides, shaking it off. Leia has her own family to be with today.

Ben is there to welcome her back when she opens the front door, a bit filthy but smiling. He drags her by the hand into the living room and waits for her approval to nod in self-satisfaction and ask if he can go on the computer now. Leia sighs and makes a show of it, but she lets him. There’s no sense in selfishly keeping Ben captive when all Leia plans to do is relax on the couch and pretend the project she’s meant to finish first thing Monday isn’t waiting in the back of her mind.

Han collapses on the couch beside her not a few minutes later anyway, and Leia lets him turn the television on to a show she doesn’t care about or particularly like because he bothers to ask if she minds. She can tune him out easily enough, reading the book Ben got her. It’s even been long enough that Leia doesn’t remember the details of the story and perhaps she’ll even keep the book after all.

The words start blurring in front of her eyes eventually, and Han takes the initiative to snatch the book out of her hands and tell Leia it’s time for bed.

“I’m the mom here, mister,” she snaps, no actual venom behind it. “I say when it’s bedtime.”

“Whatever you say, mom.” Han shrugs. “But you’re about to drop face-first into that book and it’s Ben’s bedtime, too.”

Leia has to blink and look around for him before she sees Ben standing there beside the couch, and that in itself makes her think maybe she’ll let Han win this one. Ben bites his lip not to laugh at what must be an amusing look of bafflement on her face. Leia appreciates it if only for the sake of not having to accept that her eight year old knows his mother is no less burnt out than any other given weekend.

“Alright, alright.” Leia puts out her hands expectantly. “You two can put me to bed then.”

Ben helps pull her up off the couch as much as his height allows, but it’s mostly for show, Leia leaning on Han more than is strictly necessary and making him grunt with the unexpected effort. Ben walks with them as far as their bedroom, leaning up to hug Leia around the neck and kiss her cheek before Han leads him back out and to his room to be put to bed himself. Once ready for bed, Leia sets the alarm for five thirty, already resenting the early hour, and climbs into bed herself. She’s asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow, only waking momentarily when Han gets in beside her. It’s nothing special, a small family with small traditions, but as far as Leia is concerned, what she has is perfect.


End file.
